Monday, July 29, 2013

Royal Air Maroc (AT) will, from February 17, commence 3x weekly flights from Casablanca to Prague, Czech Republic on board its Embraer E190 jets on lease from Denim Air ACMI. The two cities last saw direct service over thirty years ago.

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Royal Air Maroc (AT) says it will tender for between 12 and 15 new 100-seater aircraft should trials with two Embraer E190s, currently on lease from Holland's Denim Air ACMI, prove to be successful. Among the contenders mentioned are Bombardier's C-Series, Embraer E190 and surprisingly, Sukhoi's Super Jet 100.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

LAM - Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique (TM), Mozambique's national carrier has announced an increase in its frequencies to the Angolan capital Luanda, effective 31 March, with the addition of a third weekly flight on Wednesday.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Zambia's third largest city, Ndola, is to see an increase in its regional connectivity with Ethiopian Airlines (ET) set to launch 3x weekly Boeing 737-700 flights to the Copperbelt from 31 March 2013, whilst competitor, Kenya Airways (KQ), is to introduce a once weekly Embrarer E190 Nairobi – Ndola terminator service, also effective 31 March 2013.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Alex Van Elk, the CEO of Cameroonian national carrier Camair-Co (QC), says the airline is considering either Embraer E-Jets or Bombardier's upcoming CSeries for its mid-range fleet, with an extra Boeing 787-8 to be added to its shopping list.

Monday, November 19, 2012

During
a speech on Friday to welcome the national carrier Linhas Aéreas de
Moçambique LAM's (TM) latest aircraft - a Boeing 737-500 leased from
GECAS (MSN: 29074 | C9-BAP)
and an Embraer E190 (MSN? | C9-EMC) - Mozambican Transport and Communications
Minister Paulo Zucula stated that Mozambique’s air space has been
liberalised, and invited everyone that was interested in the sector to
“come and invest, come and fly.”

Thursday, November 1, 2012

With effect from 1 December 2012, Kenya Airways (KQ) will increase its flights to South Africa with the introduction of an additional
four weekly flights between Nairobi and Johannesburg (ORTIA), South Africa, using its newly acquired Embraer E-190.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The battle for the East African aviation market today heated up significantly when the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) dually announced the granting to Kenya Airways (KQ) of regulatory approval in the form of an Air Service License for the launch of its low-cost subsidiary, Jambo Jet, whilst at the same time, it granted FastJet certification for the use of its Airbus A319s in Kenya.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Mozambican national carrier Linhas Aéreas de Moçambique, better known as LAM Mozambique Airlines
(TM), has, via the Agência de Informação de Moçambique (the official Mozambique News Agency), announced it is to increase the frequency of its Embraer 190 operated flights between Maputo, Mozambique and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania from 2x weekly, to 3x weekly.

At present the reservation system does not reflect the
update, but when it does, we will update this post

Monday, August 6, 2012

Citing "a downturn in passenger volumes, declining revenues, unstable fuel prices and an increasingly competitive environment", Kenya Airways' CEO and Managing Director, Titus Naikuni, (KQ) on Friday announced plans to reduce the Kenyan national carrier's staff overhead in a bit to streamline the airline following a 57% drop in profit from KSh3.5billion last year, to KSh1.6billion in Q1 of this year.

Naikuni stated that Kenya Airways' wage bill had more than doubled from KSh6billion in 2007 to KSh13.4billion in 2012 following a rise in the workforce size from 3'729 to 4'170 over the same period, which, with some 664 foreigners included, brings the overall tally to 4'834 employees. It was this increase that had eaten away at the airlines profitability and thus necessitated the redundancy drive which would start primarily with junior and management staff.

“Despite various initiatives that we have put in place, our cost base continues to be extremely high. This coupled with other direct operating costs, have put pressure on our contribution margin reducing our overall ability to operate profitably,” he explained.

As part of the streamlining initiative, Kenya Airways will first offer a "Voluntary Early Retirement Package" (VERP) to staff willing to leave the organization before 31 August, after which, it will pursue a mandatory redundancy programme, should the VERP fail to attract satisfactory figures.

However, the Saturday service to either city will change to a direct Nairobi - Lubumbashi - Nairobi (served by a Boeing 737-800) and Nairobi - Ndola - Nairobi (served with an Embraer 190) routing respectively, using a Boeing 737-700.

Site News:

Welcome to The African Aviation Tribune - the web's most up-to-date resource on all news and events to do with aviation in Africa.With bureaux in Rome, Italy and Harare, Zimbabwe, if it happens, we'll cover it.